Page 21 - Speedhorse June 2020

“We, as a horsemen’s organization, are looking at all the processes to identify potential inefficiencies so our members are able to compete on a level playing field.”
- Kole Kennemer, OQHRA executive director
Hussle, owned by Rogelio Marquez Jr., who finished eighth in the $42,000 Bob Moore Memorial Stakes-G2.
The argument presented by Carrizales’ and Guzman’s attorney, Carl Hughes, stated that OHRC sanctions could not be applied until due process, including a hearing and split sample test, had played out.
Randy Hill, an Oklahoma trainer/owner/ breeder, also a retired law enforcement officer and secretary of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association (OQHRA) says, “In my opinion, from teaching college classes in criminology, due process differs in criminal cases and administrative cases. In a criminal case, you go to jail and lose your freedom; in administrative cases, you might lose a license or have a suspension, but not go to jail.
“Over the past five or 10 years, due process has taken on a new meaning within the
racing commission in Oklahoma,” he adds. “Yes, violators have certain rights under due process: they’re entitled to a hearing [and
other recourse], but for fear of being sued, the commission has given so much due process that it’s become ridiculous. The commission is a regulatory enforcement agency and as such, is going to get sued; it’s just part of the process.”
Hill says that, due to the inequities caused by trainers circumventing the rules, he and his wife now race their horses at Canterbury Park in Minnesota, and Prairie Meadows in Iowa. “Due process in those states wraps up cases in 30–60 days,” he says.
In contrast, payouts from the 2019 Remington Park Futurity are still tied up, over
a year later. “The horsemen are frustrated,” he continues. “I’ve talked with the commission’s executive director [Kelly Cathey], and his mindset is he’s afraid he’ll take someone’s livelihood. Well, when you get a DUI in a criminal case, you lose your license. It’s no big surprise.”
Cathey admits that adjudicating substance violations is sometimes a drawn-out process. “The trainer can request a split sample be sent to a different lab, which can sometimes take 30 days or longer depending on whether the
lab they choose has a heavy workload. Some people just go ahead and have a stewards’ hearing and take their lumps, but some people lawyer up and go for a temporary restraining order to keep racing, and appeal the decision to the commission, and then if they still don’t like that, they can go to district court,” he says. “But once our lab finds something, it’s virtually always confirmed by the split test lab.”
SUSPENSION NUMBERS
Both Minnesota and Oklahoma belong
to and strive to follow Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) guidelines, which distinguish drug violations by class depending on the particular substance. Yet the states differ dramatically in the number of medication-related suspensions that occur each year.
Cathey states that in 2017, OHRC stewards began summarily suspending trainers for Class 1A and beta-2 agonist substances for Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa races on the three Oklahoma tracks (Remington Park, Will Rogers Downs and Fair Meadows). OHRC enacted 31 clenbuterol-positive suspensions that year, and in 2018 the number dropped to 16, where it stayed in 2019. So far in 2020, three cases involve summary suspensions.
Lynn Hovda DVM, the chief commission veterinarian at Canterbury Park, reports that in 2019, there were no suspensions at Canterbury Park for prohibited substances. “We run a pretty tight ship here,” she said. “Of five medication violations, one was for clenbuterol and that horse is still on the vet’s list. The year before, there was one; the year before that, two. We don’t have many positive samples,
and in the years I have been [chief commission veterinarian], there hasn’t been a single contradictory result for split samples.”
Dr. Hovda points out that unlike many other states, Minnesota handles disciplinary actions for horse and trainer separately. “You have a penalty for medication violation; that’s something that the trainer did and is dealt with,” she says. “Then, the horse carried XYZ
in its system. Clenbuterol is an ARCI Class 1A violation in Quarter Horses, which puts the horse on the veterinarian’s list for 180 days. Minnesota rules specify that any horse with a positive test be put on the veterinarian’s list.”
“With our strong backing, Dr. Hovda
has no qualms about putting a horse on the veterinarian’s list and leaving them there until they test clean,” says Canterbury Park’s chief steward, Dave Hooper.
According to John Chancey DVM, the Oklahoma state veterinarian at Remington
Park, horses are placed on the veterinarian’s list depending on substance. “ARCI recommends six months for clenbuterol,” he says, adding that the time frame for placing a horse on the veterinarian’s list can vary from when notice of the violation was received to the time of the stewards’ ruling.
OUT-OF-COMPETITION TESTING
Dr. Hovda says that Minnesota regulations require random out-of-competition hair testing. “Horses don’t necessarily have to have a hair test to enter a race, but horses on the back side will certainly be tested,” she says. “One horse may be tested twice; five horses may be tested in a barn one day and zero the next.” Minnesota collects post-race blood tests at 30 minutes and keeps horses in the barn for an hour for urine tests.
In Oklahoma in 2019, Remington Park and the Oklahoma Quarter
Horse Racing Association
(OQHRA) — with the
approval of the OHRC — began requiring a hair test
be submitted for every horse prior to entry in any race at the meet. The sample must be collected 30 days or less prior to the first time a horse is entered and enables a ‘clean’ horse to be eligible to enter for up to 45 days. However, although those horses are prohibited from entering
a race until they produce a ‘clean’ test, no penalties
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